Turkey moves to deport journalist after tweets critical of PM

Azeri journalist Mahir Zeynalov, a reporter for the English-language daily Today’s Zaman, left Turkey early on Friday after a government decision to deport him for posting tweets critical of the government, his employer said.

Erdoğan filed a criminal complaint against Zeynalov for tweets he posted on December 25 regarding the massive graft scandal that has gripped the country.

Zeynalov has been put on a list of foreign individuals who are barred from entering Turkey under Law No. 5683 for “posting tweets against high-level state officials” after he was identified as the owner of the Twitter account by the Turkish intelligence organisation.